Twigleg's Story
by RavenOfFrost
Summary: We all know what happened to Twigleg and his brothers, but what really happened? (I own nothing besides the unfamiliar) One-shot.


After many, many years of living in a castle on a top of a mountain, a large brute of a dragon, who had twelve servants, called that castle their home. But this story is not about the fierce, golden dragon. Instead, it is about one of the servants. A homunculus, a small manikin, with spindly limbs, named Twigleg, who was sitting on the ground with his eight brothers in their own room that they each shared, but only had the cold, stoned ground for comfort. The nine of them were silent as they were mourning for their four brothers, who were just eaten by their master.

"I can't believe it," one of them muttered, who was sitting across from Twigleg. They all had red hair and crimson eyes, and wore tailcoats with pointed boots, but you could tell some of them apart. This one was Crimson, who had hair that was the darkest red out of all of them.

"We just have to pay more attention next time," Nidus, the one who kept the other brothers in order and was one of the most sensible. His crimson hair was like Twigleg's: soft and standing on the top of his head. The two of them were often confused with each other, but Twigleg had a bigger nose than his brother.

"Pay attention?" Ragnar snapped. His shoulder-length hair was tied in a loose ponytail and was famous for his temper and hardhead, but nothing like their master, who was now sleeping. Everyone looked at him and made Twigleg perk up his head. "He ate our brothers, Nidus. I say we fight back. We've been at this charade our entire lives and now is our chance."

"And risk us all getting eaten?" Another called out.

"Ragnar," the leader of the brothers soothed, "we feel your pain, but we don't stand a chance. For now we just have to stay on his good side and hope for the best."

The hardheaded manikin just hissed as he looked away.

Twigleg placed his head back into his arms that were on his knees, looking at the ground with many questions flooding his little mind. The sound of the rest of his brothers laying on the hard ground interrupted his thoughts, then carried on thinking. The four that were lost- PointedEar, Kaz, Leaf, and Skinny- were simply polishing their master's armor, until the Golden One got angry and swallowed them whole. It wasn't long before that the master did the same to their creator, an alchemist, who made the twelve homunculi and the Golden One. It seemed so long since the manikin was happy with his eleven brothers around him and the only bad thing was the master, but when they were with each other, it was like they had no real problems.

"Are you alright?" A voice asked, making the small man look up to Nidus, who was standing in front of him with, looking down with concern.

"Fine," he muttered, resting his head to the side on his thin arms.

His brother sat beside him. "Twigleg," he said softly, not wanting to wake the others. "We'll get through this. All of us."

Twigleg could feel his brother's smile, making him raise his to look at him. "I guess you're right. It's not the first time we saw something like that happen."

Nidus slowly nodded his head sadly and did not say another word.

* * *

><p>Days past since the loss of the four brothers when Twigleg was gathering a cloth and some polish as Keets, who was a little bit taller than him, joined up. "You better be careful," he muttered with a tired smile. "I heard he's in a snappy mood."<p>

Twigleg sighed heavily. "Perfect."

His brother began to get his own polish and cloth. "The others are waiting for us."

The manikin looked away. "I don't want to lose anyone else."

A hand was placed on his shoulder, making him slowly look at his brother, who had a small smile of hope. "We're not going to lose anymore. Even Ragnar will be careful."

He gave a small chuckle. "I suppose you're right. Five days past since the incident occurred and we haven't lost anyone else."

"Exactly. Now let's go before the Golden One gets impatient." WIth that, the two of them met with the other brothers and began their journey down to the vaults with Spindle and Sticks playing sword fighting with the files as Ragnar was trying to get them to calm down. Twigleg was watching Kies trying to practice twirling the toothbrush, but kept dropping it, then Keets picked it from the ground and began to show off his twirling skills, making the other brother jealous. The rest of them were just talking and laughing.

The manikin felt a small smile grow on his lips as he watched his family. The loss and fear was still hanging over their heads, but when they were with each other and not with Nettlebrand, things never changed between them. Then an arm was roughly thrown around his neck by Spindle and the two of them began to laugh.

When the joyous Homunculi reached the Golden One, they each bowed and began to do their own part. Twigleg was on polishing duty with Crimson, Sticks, Nidus, and Keets. Spindle and Kies were on filing as Ragnar was on teeth brushing.

Everything was going well, until Nettlebrand spat Ragnar out and glared at Crimson, who was polishing his forearm. "What are you doing, termite?"

The manikin with dark red hair swallowed as he looked up at the large dragon. "I-It was an accident. I'm sorry, master." His voice was meek.

Twigleg and the others stopped what they were doing and watched the scene. There was spilt polish over a couple of the golden scales.

Nettlebrand growled, "We'll see how sorry you really are."

Twigleg's heart stopped in horror as he was about to watch another one of his brothers get devoured, until Kies jumped in front of his brother. "You eat him, you have to eat me, too!" He cried with bravery.

Nettlebrand shook the rest of the Homunculi off, making Twigleg hitting his head against the hard and ice-cold scale, then roll to the ground like a rag doll and fell on his stomach. All he could hear nothing and see nothing but black, then a bloodcurdling scream was heard, "Help me! Please, help me!"

It was Spindle.

Twigleg shook his head and scrambled to feet. His eyes grew wide in horror as he watched his smaller brother being tossed in the air, then snatched by the monstrous jaws of their master. He was about to run to the others, but a giant dragon's paw pinned him down with only his arms free and looked up to the red eyes of the fierce dragon.

"I could just crush you and be done with it," he growled coldly, making the blood run cold through the manikin's veins.

Twigleg tried to pull his body out, lift up the paw, but nothing would work, until Ragnar and Sticks jumped from behind the paw and began to help pull him out. Were they the only ones left? How long has he been out? His arms felt like they were going to be ripped from the sockets as his two brothers were trying to free him, until the other paw of the dragon gently pushed the two of them up away. The manikin grabbed his bothers' hands, refusing to let them go, but their grip was lost, then screamed in terror as he watched the jaws of the powerful dragon snatch them up and they were gone.

* * *

><p>That night, Twigleg was curled in a ball in the room that used to be filled with Homunculi, but this time, he was alone. The images of his brothers where flooding his head. Nidus, Spindle, Sticks, PointedEar, Crimson, Keets, Skinny, Kaz, Kies, Leaf, and Ragnar. All of them were gone and he was the only one that was spared to serve is life as an armor-cleaner or in other words: A slave. The lonely manikin closed his eyes, replaying the memories of his brothers and began to cry as he was now alone in this cruel world of heartache and misery.<p> 


End file.
